I’ve got to say, if I found out my school was making a pitch like this on the recruiting trail, I’d be offended.

Multiple SEC assistants say that Sam’s coming out will be used by rival schools to negatively recruit against Missouri. “Coaches are going to be all over this,” said one assistant at another school.

If that sounds like backward thinking, that’s because it is. It also provides insight into the way football coaches operate. Some are tactful in how they approach things. Others, not so much.

“It’s a powder keg just waiting to explode,” the assistant said.

The assistant predicts that opposing coaches will pose a number of questions. “Why did [Missouri] cover this up?” the assistant said. “What else are they hiding? What were they trying to do? Keep a secret society?”

Not because of the prejudice. Because it’s so effing stupid. A secret society of teh gay? What? There ain’t a school in the SEC that doesn’t have secrets. So what’s the real message supposed to be here – “come to our program where we try to keep a lid on old-fashioned, apple pie, American issues like rape, drugs and assault”? Or, “don’t be fooled by a team having one of its players’ back, here’s the real dope”? After all, what kid wouldn’t be swayed by that?

Honestly, I can’t think of a program that would be moronic enough to push something like that, unless there’s a five-star recruit on Duck Dynasty in next year’s class. (I keed, I keed.) Maybe it’s a form of reverse psychology – every SEC coach can deny with all his heart that his school would resort to something like that.

Sports Illustrated really ought to be ashamed of itself for publishing that tripe.

71 responses to ““I can see it getting really ugly.””

I have a hard time figuring all this out. Constantly, I am told that a person’s sexual orientation doesn’t matter and is a privarte matter. Yet, it’s a big deal when someone tells us who they like to have sex with. What does it matter in the game of football??? So why is he telling if it doesn’t matter? Seems it’s really about something other than football. I’m quite sure there are lots more gay college football players. I don’t need to know about them either.

Tebow’s always worn his religion on his sleeve, and more power to him for that. But that’s how we got to Clay Travis’ obnoxious question during the presser that Tebow didn’t host but did attend (not sure why that makes a difference, by the way).

Just saying that he didn’t hold a presser to proclaim his celibacy. He lives his life how he lives it and people ask whatever questions they want. Fine. I don’t personally understand why a gay person in sports couldn’t do the same. I know the argument that he was getting ahead of a story, I just don’t personally believe it’s necessary. His way of life will be an inspiration to some and a turn off to others, just as Tebow’s is.

Michael Sam didn’t want to tell you about his private life either. Others were about to expose him so he preempted a circus with his own press release.

By the way, Sam did tell his coach & teammates he was gay & let them make the decision about whether it would affect on-field performance. He didn’t make any outside show of it until he had to. I don’t know who you’re mad at, but it ain’t Michael Sam.

I wonder if some media members have been a bit surprised at the lack of an uproar. People knew that some football players were gay. Apparently, knowing which ones are and aren’t isn’t as big a deal as expected.

Well, it won’t get tricky, but it could get tricky down the road. I knew a lot of folks involved in women’s B-ball backin the day. Simply, there were teams that chose not to recruit lesbians because of fear of messing up team dynamics and then teams that were made up of largely lesbian players. You think that wasn’t talked about on the recruiting trail, both ways?

The story, to me, is not Sam. The story is the complexities of this issue in a sport like football, though they have probably been around softball and women’s b-ball for some time. I played h.s. football with a girl kicker. She wasn’t allowed in the locker room and we weren’t allowed in the bathroom where she changed.

What would have happened at Mizzou had just one player gone to the coach and said he didn’t feel comfortable changing in front of Sam? That player could have been gay or straight and felt that way? If you’ve never been in a college FB locker room, you might not understand that issue, but it’s a real issue. It’s the equivalent of a straight male getting to play on an all-lesbian soccer team with really good looking players. Should the girls be forced to shower with that player and change in the locker room with him? And if you were that guy, you wouldn’t look? There’s a reason the college girls like the football team — they’re built like greek gods and are often good looking. It is what it is.

I think we all want to hope our university would handle the situation appropriately and with class while honoring all people. The bottom line is that you want football players and they come in all shapes and sizes. But, we can’t ignore the complexities of the issues. I’ll bet you’ve seen a workplace romance tear apart an office or business or circle of friends. Can you imagine that on a team? It’s just complex. And, as slimy as it may seem, any coach is going to use that to his advantage. I want to slay that’s slimy, but one recruit can mean the difference between 7-5 and 8-4 and that can be the difference in him having a job come January.

And, no, I don’t know the answers to all those complex issues. But to ignore that they could be issues isn’t wise. I’ll bet it scares the coaches to death.

Okay. You might be right. Maybe it won’t be that complicated. But I spent 5 seasons working with an SEC football team, and it might be more complex than you realize. The dynamics of what happens, what is said, and what life is like in a locker room and what happens on a field aren’t very known to the general fan. It’s just a different world.

I’m not saying it can’t be handled, but football’s just kind of a different world. I love that about it, but there are some assumptions that would get challenged in that situation, and I think they’d be complex to deal with.

They might think it is a different world but it is not. It is a perpetuation of the myth that athletes and coaches are “special” and that the real world does not apply to them. It is small-minded thinking.

It was the same reasoning used to keep from integrating rosters of football teams in the South.

Remember, these guys are supposed to be great leaders of men. “They are supposed to be teaching them things that go beyond the football field and can be used for their daily life after football.” But they cannot figure out how to integrate a player who “might be different” into their locker room?

What would have happened at Mizzou had just one player gone to the coach and said he didn’t feel comfortable changing in front of Sam? That player could have been gay or straight and felt that way?

If someone feels like they are about to be accosted or somehow threatened (by a gay or straight male), then they have a right to complain. I don’t see a gay man coming onto a straight man in a locker room.

Senator…what is your anti-troll policy? I think we all have a pretty good idea about the difference between free speech (and the right to express and value of a dissenting opinion and trolling), but for heavens sake, can you nuke a reply like this?

Not being hateful, I’m just like Michael Sam’s dad….old school. They can do whatever they want to do, I just don’t have to support it. It’s not natural and I’m not gonna be tricked by the liberal media into acting like its normal. I can think for myself. I guess it’s only ok to have a different opinion if it’s a liberal one. Obama’s America, awesome.

There was a time when people thought going to school with black people was unnatural. They said “Earl warren’s America, awesome.” The intolerants and bigots always lose, it just takes time. I’m glad to know that over time the world will become a shittier place for you while it simultaneously improves for everyone else.

Maybe it’s just me, but I love it when these “first time callers” chime in and then you never (hopefully) hear from them again. Too bad “Russiaisright” didn’t participate in the comments regarding the “Speaking Out” post. Never seen him (or her) comment on this blog before and doubt he/she will again. But, that’s the way Putin trolls …

Been to Russia twice. Putin is passing anti-gay laws because Russia is still a 3rd world country once you depart the suburbs of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Crushing poverty, crushing corruption. And in the time-honored tradition of the Czars and Politburo, nothing takes people’s minds off the Russian winter quite like a good scape-goating. In Russia, “old school” would end this thing in a few mass graves. But, you can’t really do that anymore with satellites and social media. Not if you want to host an Olympic games.

Plus, Hitler ruined picking on the Jews forevermore, the Chinese are now business partners, and the ethnic minorities to the south have proven willing to shoot back. Gays are about all that Putin has left.

I’m betting this doesn’t swing God to Russia’s side or solve the Motherland’s mortality rates.

You know, I recollect forty-odd years ago when some student leftists of my age were enamoured of Soviet Russia as the world’s first Communist “paradise”. I do NOT recollect any of them loving it enough to pull up stakes and go live there, however. Quite frankly, as a gay man I find it entirely appropriate that over forty years later, love of Russia has migrated to the opposite end of the political spectrum. I seriously doubt, however, that this board’s latest poster or any other new Russophiles (Pat Buchanan springs to mind) are going to move to Russia although they would certainly have greater scope there to indulge their hatred of gays and lesbians than one currently obtains in 21st century America.

Iran, Uganda, and Nigeria also offer totally unfettered expression of this form of free speech where it can be indulged without the least likelihood of anyone taking exception. I don’t anticipate any exodus to those earthly. Paradises either.

Russia: This poor, pathetic country, even with all its monumental achievements in culture and sport, has always had, and continues to have, the most rotten luck in the universe with regard to its rulers. Enlightened liberal leaders such as Tsar Alexander II or Mikhail Gorbachev ultimately incurred widespread contempt for their perceived “weakness” in trying to govern humanely and in encouraging their people to express basic political freedoms which were unheard of when they took power.

Whereas a common thug like Putin is free to preen and posture as his country’s ideal of a “strong” ruler while his friends and associates are stealing it blind – $50 BILLION from the current Olympics alone, added to the costs of construction and staging. Meanwhile, the Vlad claims, among other things, that he needs to encourage a higher birth rate in Russia. News flash: passing bigoted laws which encourage public violence against gays and lesbians is NOT going to make straight people in Russia any more willing to raise children in that appallingly abused and misgoverned country than they currently are. If anyone here TRULY thinks that our Nation, with all it’s undoubted faults, has gone to hell in a handbasket, I respectfully urge them to broaden their horizons with a year’s vacation in Russia by way of comparison.

Maybe I’m just old fashioned but i find it a bit all a bit hypocritical. Tebow receives a fair amount of castigation when he openly speaks of his faith and this is expected, yet when Sams openly addresses his sexual orientation anyone who speaks against it is lambasted. This Country has come a long way since the days of my youth and I don’t think I can honestly call it progress.

Senator with all due respect, to point out that Tebpw ‘gets praise too’ in no way negates the castigation he endures for his views any more than the praise that Sams has and will get negate the castigation he will endure. Also while the Country is less prejudiced, at least as pertaining to race, to which I am grateful. This too misses the point I was attempting to make which was simply this: it appears to me that we have not became wiser as a people in that, instead of allowing true freedom of expression for all views without fear of castigation, under the guise of tolerance we have simply traded one set of views for another. The prejudice is still there. Only the focus has been shifted to other groups/viewpoints.

Oh and btw and waaaaaay off subject, I may be the only white man still alive that has had the KKK burn a cross in in their yard. It’s an interesting story if you ever care to hear it.

… under the guise of tolerance we have simply traded one set of views for another.

That’s way too simple. For one thing, institutional tolerance is far greater now than it ever was. Sure, Tebow is mocked by some for his sincere religious views, but in what other ways has he suffered for holding them? I don’t see how you can equate that with what blacks were legally denied a few decades ago or what gays are legally denied today in some places.

Values change over time. It’s the consequence of living in a relatively free society. That’s also going to mean that some find their values less popular. But that’s far from saying that they still can’t have them, or that if they insist on having them, they’ll be subject to legal harm or institutional mores that limit their access to the marketplace.

I don’t see where I did equate it, but I will say this: If the individual’s public practice of his/her religious beliefs continues to be squelched over the next 30 years at the rate it has over the last 30 we may very well be able to draw a comparison in the near future.

Just food for thought, but most studies put the percent of Christians in the U.S at around 70-75%. What would happen if 70-75% of his past or former teammates stood up and publicly stated that due to their religious beliefs they did not want him on their team?

The Affordable Care Act requires private and public and institutions and businesses to provide contraception, sterilizations and abortion inducing drugs despite the fact this directly contradicts the religious beliefs of some.

The President has publicly stated that he will not enforce the DOMA is in effect disavowing his Oath of office.

The Duck Dynasty debacle has already been alluded to. Regardless of the outcome, it’s a pretty safe to say that it’s beyond debate that
Phil Roberson was being persecuted for publicly stating his religious beliefs. How many others do and will continue to be hesitant to speak openly and freely about their beliefs because they don’t have the clout Phil has and fear they won’t weather the repercussions as well as he. Maybe any future Miss America contestant?

If I read you right, you’re assuming that all self-identified Christians would oppose being around gay people or would require that person to renounce their sexuality in order to gain acceptance. I don’t see it.

And FWIW, I think Christianity is stronger today because of people willing to challenge some views that went unchallenged for a very long time. Maybe some of those challengers were obnoxious or uninformed, but I think the churches I have been a member of in the past 20 years have been stronger communities more focused on outreach and the walk. The churches I grew up in were more interested in gate-keeping and traditions. Not coincidentally, the churches I grew up in were constantly worried about losing young people and an aging congregation. The more recent variety struggle with the opposite problem: managing growth.

I agree with you regarding your statement “I think Christianity is stronger today because of people willing to challenge some views that went unchallenged for a very long time.”

The church I grew up in was filled with members that were more interested in, as you stated, “gate-keeping and traditions” … and not interested in hearing other people’s views. Once I got into high school, I decided to change from my family’s Baptist church to a Methodist church. Not trying to say that all Baptist churches are bad and/or that all Methodist churches are good. Just saying that it worked out well for me. In any case, I’ve been a Methodist ever since and their more open views (IMO) match more with what I experience in my friendships and at work. While I’m not gay/lesbian, I do have some friends that are and I work with many that are. We work side-by-side on project teams and I’ve never felt uncomfortable with any of them and hope that none of them have felt uncomfortable with me. With that said, I don’t think any of us is perfect and I’m sure that I’ve hurt plenty of folks’ feelings in some way in the past and will do so in the future … but I don’t/won’t do it on purpose like “Russiaisright” seems to do.

The one thing that I remember my mother teaching me and what I’ve tried to drill into my two teenage boys’ heads … “Treat others the way you want to be treated.”

At the risk of flogging a dead horse, let me offer an opinion followed by a fact. In my opinion, the backlash against Tebow has less to do with his professed Christianity than with his horrendous overexposure in the media (particularly relative to his actual achievements in the NFL). Whether he were Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, atheist or Rastafarian, I’d still be sick of hearing about him.

The fact, meanwhile, is that the freedom to express one’s religious beliefs in no way inoculates someone from criticism or disagreement. If someone has a religious issue with Michael Sam’s sexuality, for example, they’re certainly free to express that — but the rest of us are also free to criticize that as a small-minded, prejudiced viewpoint. Once upon a time, there were more of the former type of people than the latter; today, it seems the majority is shifting. Some may see this as a regression. I don’t.

Gees Louise Tebow does not get ” a fair amount of castigation” over his religion. I defy you to link one message board post by a “Marxisright” type poster saying “I’ll never root for my team if a player wears eyeblack with Bible references on them.”

The overwhelming majority of comments about Clay Travis ‘s question to Tebow about Tebow ‘s sexual history was critical of Travis for asking. The only lampooning of Tebow ‘s expressions of faith is lampooning those who suggest that god favored Tebow over opponents who also expressed faith. Those comments no more attacked expressions of faith than this old joke I first heard from a priest :
Guy is at a baseball game . Happens to sit next to a priest. Bottom of the eighth, two out, tying tun on third and go ahead run on second. Pinch hitter approachs the batters box and crosses himself. Guy turns to to priest next to him and said, “I bet that helps, Father.” Priest said, “Not if he can’t hit a curve. ” That joke no more “castigated” expressions of Christian faith than did the Saturday Night Live skit about Tebow and God really liking the Bronco’s kicker better.

Eighty something percent of Americans claim to be Christians. Almost all members of Congress practice a religious faith and probably more than three quarters are Christian. More than half the US Supreme Court justices actively practice the Roman Catholic Christian faith. Every single US president had practiced a Christian faith. Those who claim that there is a war on religion generally and on Christianity specifically ignore facts right under their noses. They to so because they want to scare a bunch of people into giving them their money or voted or both.

I will never read another book about team building, leadership, achievement acumen by a sports personality (coach, front office person, player, etc.) These guys are not leaders. They do not live and breath in the real world and their knowledge comes not from circumstances that can used in the real world but a fantasy one.

If these guys were such great leaders, everyone of them would go on the record with their name and say – “If we had a X (insert your own adjective here) Player in our locker room, it would not matter because, I will lead my team to make it work. We will not use media attention or distractions as an excuse. I will be accepting, my staff will be accepting and our team will be accepting. Because we are focused individuals working toward a common goal of winning.”

But very few of them have done that and few of them will. They will hide behind Jurassic like thinking of “locker rooms” and “old boys clubs.” Their job description may be different but an NFL locker room is still a workplace and something that is not tolerated at Coca-Cola, or Microsoft, or Northside Hospital, or any other workplace should be tolerated in the NFL. The same goes for a collegiate locker room – if it is not tolerated on campus – it should not be tolerated in the locker room.

Also, I have not seen the locker facilities at UGA or the GA Dome or any of these training facilities, but we hear an awful lot about the millions of dollars in upgrades and improvements that are made. Do these athletes still take showers en masse in one giant shower like the Romans? I work at a Fortune 500 company with a gym at our HQ and even we have individual shower stalls. When I work out, I am pretty certain that a certain % of them are gay and they will be in the locker room around the same time. Never once have I had a worry about someone looking at me. If other institutions – not in the sports locker room business – can make it work, I think these folks who run sports organizations will be able to make it work too. If they cannot then they are just a bunch of idiots.

Quote Of The Day

“But outside of that, the biggest advantage you can have is have good leadership, have a veteran football team, and when you’ve got that, it doesn’t matter whether you have spring practice or not. When you don’t have that, it’s tougher, when you don’t have leadership and you don’t have the experience at certain positions.”— Kirby Smart, Dawgs247, 3/31/20